More often than not, the most efficient means of online payment is via the original electronic token, credit cards.

However, in these times of data breaches — both sinister and stupid — it’s never been more important to take measures to protect what you’ve earned.

Hacking has become so sophisticated that if a breach of either sort occurs, there are bots that can discover and mine it within 20-30 minutes. That’s usually faster than the data source being hit can receive an alert and repair it.

With this in mind, the least secure method of online payment is your debit card for the simple reason that it provides a direct line to your bank account.

Hackers sometimes go for the big kill by draining your funds to the debit card’s limit. Other times, they’ll deploy perniciously subtle practices to bleed your account over time by slipping in an innocuous series of ghost payments such as an installment for an item you never bought or a subscription you never ordered.

If you don’t catch these, the hacker’s got a source of recurring income for quite some time.

You’ll be better protected by using a credit card.

There’s no absolute means to totally insulate your data, but even bots are inclined to follow paths of least resistance. Thus, it’s worth your consideration to drop a hint that they should look to make trouble somewhere else.

One of the surest methods of improving your security is to add layers of protection that won’t slow down your ease of access. For example:

Add Capital One to Bank of America and Citibank as major financial institutions offering virtual credit cards.

Privacy.com is a free app that allows you to create a virtual credit card for every outlet, if you so desire. It also can be switched over to multi-use mode:

Keep in mind there’s one major drawback to virtual credit cards.

If you laid it down in burner mode — one time only — it may be difficult to verify your purchase if you want a refund or make a return.

A simple alternative to virtual cards if it doesn’t cause issues with your personal bookkeeping system — eg- one card for business expenses, another card for personal expenses, etc — is to dedicate just one low-limit credit card to online purchases and be vigilant about checking the statement each month.

More often than not, the most efficient means of online payment is via the original electronic token, credit cards.

However, in these times of data breaches — both sinister and stupid — it’s never been more important to take measures to protect what you’ve earned.

Hacking has become so sophisticated that if a breach of either sort occurs, there are bots that can discover and mine it within 20-30 minutes. That’s usually faster than the data source being hit can receive an alert and repair it.

With this in mind, the least secure method of online payment is your debit card for the simple reason that it provides a direct line to your bank account.

Hackers sometimes go for the big kill by draining your funds to the debit card’s limit. Other times, they’ll deploy perniciously subtle practices to bleed your account over time by slipping in an innocuous series of ghost payments such as an installment for an item you never bought or a subscription you never ordered.

If you don’t catch these, the hacker’s got a source of recurring income for quite some time.

You’ll be better protected by using a credit card.

There’s no absolute means to totally insulate your data, but even bots are inclined to follow paths of least resistance. Thus, it’s worth your consideration to drop a hint that they should look to make trouble somewhere else.

One of the surest methods of improving your security is to add layers of protection that won’t slow down your ease of access. For example:

Add Capital One to Bank of America and Citibank as major financial institutions offering virtual credit cards.

Privacy.com is a free app that allows you to create a virtual credit card for every outlet, if you so desire. It also can be switched over to multi-use mode:

Keep in mind there’s one major drawback to virtual credit cards.

If you laid it down in burner mode — one time only — it may be difficult to verify your purchase if you want a refund or make a return.

A simple alternative to virtual cards if it doesn’t cause issues with your personal bookkeeping system — eg- one card for business expenses, another card for personal expenses, etc — is to dedicate just one low-limit credit card to online purchases and be vigilant about checking the statement each month.

Kjell Sherman, Manager – The Norra Ljusen Trust

You can view a short video about how I entered the exciting world of online entrepreneurship on the home page of our Better Life Focus site. It’s dedicated to motivated marketers and provides trending Dot Com news, information, and entertainment for motivated entrepreneurs who commit to take action in their quest to reclaim their time by becoming and remaining financially independent via e-commerce.

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